It’s impressive how many beers Ancestry Brewing has on tap; 17 out of 20 draft lines were filled with the brewery’s own beer, along with one guest cider from Jester & Judge and bottles of wine available by the glass. The taproom is in the bottom of a new condo building, which Ancestry seems to prefer. As most of these new retail/housing developments, it has large windows that slide open, lots of cement and cool colors. Ancestry has put in a very nice salvaged wood bar and table tops adding a little more earthiness and warmth.

The taproom is small-ish, cozy and welcoming like a new coffee shop or cafe. There is no outdoor seating yet, but work is being done to remedy that. Four big flat screen TVs hang from two walls playing the Olympics and other sports, and two attentive servers and a cook keep the place clean and food coming quick. The menu is sandwich/burger heavy, as PDX Sliders is known for. Originally a mobile food truck still located at 8064 SE 17th Street, PDX Sliders has been acclaimed for its burgers, even being named as one of the Best Burgers in America by National Geographic.

The food menu is split into Starters, Beef, Pork, Chicken, Veggie, and Kids Meal. For starters, the house fries are only offered with truffle salt and fresh parsley. They are very savory and on the higher end of salty. There are five different classic beef burgers. The Ancestry Burger is a hybrid reuben burger with smoked corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and special sauce on ciabatta. The Sellwood burger has aged cheddar and carmelized onions and aioli on a brioche bun. The Hawthorne burger has bacon, goat cheese, and strawberry preserves. The Fremont has American cheese, roasted jalapenos, and aoli. Finally, the Brewery Burger has TWO 1/2lb beef patties with bacon, american cheese, carmelized onions and aioli. You can also get fried chicken, veggie patties or a kids meal similar to the classic McDonalds box.

For the beers, the lineup has a lot of range. From plenty of hops (a Session IPA, West Coast IPA, Piney IPA and Triple IPA on my visit) to classic English ales like ESB and Irish Stout to the very rare Mild Ale and English Brown Porter. There also seems to be a rotating fruited wheat. On my visit they just ran out of the Raspberry Hef and replaced it with a Peach Hefeweizen, which was OK, but I suspect uses flavoring. The IPA was solid, the Triple IPA malty and bitter, and the nitro Oat Stout (regular or bourbon barrel-aged) is a highlight.

In late 2016, a new Ancestry Brewing taproom will be on the ground floor of the now in construction The Union at St. Johns, a new mixed use project 10th 100 apartments and 20,000 sq. ft. of ground floor commercial space. The Union is located at the intersection of N. Lombard and Charleston in the heart of St. John’s and the new Ancestry Brewing taproom will include an outdoor courtyard space with patio seating. This will be the 4th brewery taproom in St. Johns behind McMenamins, Occidental Brewing and Royale Brewing.

Founder of The New School and most frequent contributor Ezra Johnson-Greenough has worked in the craft beer industry for almost 10 years, doing everything from illustrating beer labels to bartending at renowned beer bars and breweries like Belmont Station, Apex, Laurelwood and Upright Brewing. He has also had a hand in creating events like the Portland Fruit Beer Festival, Portland Beer Week, and the Brewing up Cocktails series. He is available for freelance consultation in marketing, events, graphic design and branding.
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The New School Beer aims to be the #1 source for craft beer, cider and mead industry news in the northwest. We focus on breaking stories about new breweries, new brands, openings, closings, reviews, interviews, videos and industry news and commentary from a variety of well connected contributors.